January 08, 2008

If you want to live outside the United States, this section is for you!

Here is a terrific report about "Quality of Life Index", not necessarily the cheapest, but what brings joy and contentment to living overseas!

All the best,

Brian Gibbonswww.REISkills.com

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2008 Quality of Life Index

Where to Find the World’s Best Quality of Life in 2008
by Kathleen Peddicord

It’s
no easy thing to quantify something like quality of life. How do you
attach a figure or a ranking to the experience of spending time in a
place?

You can’t.

The number of hospital
beds and physicians per capita…the number of airports, the length of
railway track, and the volume of cell phones, measured against the
population…the gross domestic product and the average per-capita
income…how much do these things have to do with “quality of life”?

All the scores and more online…
Accompanying this article are the final scores for all 192 countries
considered in our survey. To see the complete scores for every country
in every category, go to: www.qualityoflife2008.com.

If
your appendix bursts, sure, you hope the local hospital has a spare bed
for you…and if you’re planning a weekend getaway, you appreciate a
nearby airport. But are those things real measures of your life
experience?

Indeed, should you choose your place of
residence based on tax rates, the cost of living, or the strength of
the local economy?

After 22 years participating in the production of International Living’s annual Quality of Life survey, which considers all these bits of data, along with hundreds of others, I’d say no.

You’ll notice as you review this year’s Index that the places International Living
normally recommends you think about living or retiring fall nowhere
near the top in the final rankings. Ecuador’s economy is a basket-case
and has been for as long as anyone can remember. Nicaragua’s tax rates
aren’t particularly appealing for the foreign resident. Uruguay has
zero miles of usable railway track. And, in the interior of Argentina,
you could travel a long way in search of a hospital bed.

On
the other hand, Switzerland, for example, boasts 40 miles of railway
track per 10,000 people over which the trains run quick and on time.
Its GDP per capita is $34,000. And its female citizens live to the ripe
age of 83 years.

Should you contact your local Swiss
Embassy to see if you might qualify for residency? I don’t know, but
realize, before you do, that these details, certainly when considered
individually and out of context, are nearly meaningless.

How the numbers are crunched

To rate and rank the 192 countries considered in this year’s Quality of Life Index , we took into account:

Cost of Living (15%
of the final ranking). This is a guide to how much it will cost you to
live in a style comparable to—or better than—the standard of living
you’re likely enjoying in the U.S. Our primary source in this category
is the U.S. State Department’s Index of Overseas Living Costs, used to
compute cost-of-living allowances for a Western-style of living in
various countries. We also consider each country’s income tax rates.

Culture and Leisure
(10%). To calculate this score, we look at literacy rate, newspaper
circulation per 1,000 people, primary and secondary school enrollment
ratios, number of people per museum, and a subjective rating of the
variety of cultural and recreational offerings.

Environment (10%). To
figure a country’s score in this category, we look at population
density per square kilometer, population growth rate, greenhouse
emissions per capita, and the percentage of total land that is
protected .

Freedom (10%).
Freedom House’s 2007 survey is the main source for these scores, with
an emphasis on a citizen’s political rights and civil liberties.

Health
(10%). In this category, we look at calorie consumption as a percentage
of daily requirements, the number of people per doctor, the number of
hospital beds per 1,000 people, the percentage of the population with
access to safe water, the infant mortality rate, life expectancy, and
public health expenditure as a percentage of a country’s GDP.

Infrastructure
(10% ). To calculate a country’s Infrastructure score, we look at the
length of railways, paved highways, and navigable waterways in each
country, and equated these things to each country’s population and
size. We also consider the number of airports, motor vehicles ,
telephones, Internet service providers, and cell phones per capita.

Safety and Risk
(10%). For this category, we use the U.S. Department of State’s
hardship Differentials and danger allowances, which are based on
extraordinarily difficult, notably unhealthy, or dangerous living
conditions.

Climate (10%). When
deciding on a score for each country’s climate, we look at its average
annual rainfall and average temperature…and consider its risk for
natural disasters.

The irony of this year’s Index for me is that France wins. According to IL’s
2008 Quality of Life Index, France is the best place in the world to
live. I’d agree…but not for the reasons the survey suggests.

I
appreciate that France offers, by all measures, the world’s best
medical care. I appreciate its fast trains and its Eurostar service
across the Channel. I appreciate Paris’ too-many-to-count museums,
cafés, galleries, antiques shops, restaurants, boutiques, jazz clubs,
theaters, bakeries, and cheese shops, as well as her multitude of parks
and gardens, some growing and tended for hundreds of years. I
appreciate the easy and cheap air access its three capital city
airports provide to the rest of Europe…and the world beyond. I
appreciate the country’s four seasons, none too severe.

On
the other hand, I defy you to try to start or operate a business in
this country, which has sent some of the most persistent businessmen I
know running, arms flailing, for cover. Good luck opening a bank
account without a letter of reference. Indeed, bonne chance
getting local cell phone service (the secret is to bring a local
utility bill, preferably an electric bill). To apply for a visa or even
to rent an apartment (legally), you’ll have to prepare an inch-thick
dossier, notarized, sealed, stamped, witnessed…

All those
things are inconvenient and frustrating. But, just as a healthy gross
domestic product and a lot of cell phones in circulation don’t
necessarily translate to a good life, neither do an abundance of
administrative red tape and restrictive systems for doing business
necessarily mean a bad one.

What, then, does make for a
good quality of life? You’ll have to answer the question for yourself,
and, when you do, here’s what I suggest: Place a premium on the things
that can’t be plugged into a spreadsheet. A country (or a city or a
region) may make great sense on paper but appeal to you not at all when
you visit. And vice versa.

Why do I enjoy spending time
in France? I have two reasons. The first, stated simply, may seem
silly, though, if you’ve a romantic soul, you may understand.

I
like France, especially Paris, because it’s beautiful. The more time I
spend here, the more I’m convinced. No city anywhere is as pretty as
Paris. At all times of year, any time of day, in any weather, central
Paris is lovely. Walk along its river, wander the twisting cobblestoned
rues of its Latin Quarter, while away an afternoon watching the city
pass you by from a café perch…and you’ll see what I mean.

For
me, knowing that, at any moment, I can step out my front door and be
part of this…that makes for a good quality of life. My daily commute
for three years was a half-hour walk across the Seine and through the
Tuileries gardens of the Louvre. When I walk my little boy the 20
minutes to school in the morning, we wave to the shop-keepers along the
way and smile at their ever-changing window displays. Making our way
home in the evening, we stop for a baguette at the corner bakery and a
bottle of wine at the shop down the block.

Paris is a museum city, and its displays, in all directions, are world-class.

The
other reason I like spending time in this city is because the longer
you’re here, the less certain you are that you know the place. Paris is
a tease. Like a lover savvy enough never to reveal too much too
quickly, Paris shows you a little leg, then covers up coquettishly,
leaving you smiling and anticipating the next encounter. You may think
you know Paris, but I promise you, there’s more to discover.

And, for me, this…this potential for endless discovery…perhaps more than anything else, makes for good living.

Editor’s note:
We asked other IL
editors from around the world to tell us what quality of life means to
them and how they achieved their ideals in the part of the world they
have chosen to reside. Read on for their stories.

Dan Prescher and Suzan Haskins in Merida, Mexico
Six years ago, we decided we weren’t going to take it any more and left
the wind, rain, snow, and sleet of Midwestern winters behind. We’ve
never regretted doing that, despite the fact that making a life in a
foreign world has its own set of hurdles.

Here
in Merida, the streets are clean. The stores are well stocked. Cafés
and restaurants abound. At night in the city parks, bands play free
concerts under the stars. Dinner can be had at a local café for $5.
It’s safe to walk home after midnight.

A visit to the
doctor’s office costs $30, and the doctor takes medical histories
himself. The doctor provides a personal phone number and says to call
immediately with any questions or concerns…and means it.

Just
about everything necessary for a quiet, happy life is within walking
distance or a $2 taxi ride away, and there are taxis on every corner,
all the time.

This may sound like life in a typical U.S.
town in the 1950s, but this is our home in the old central district of
Merida, capital city of Yucatan state in eastern Mexico.

Merida
is a prosperous middle-class Mexican city that works. With a population
of about 800,000, it’s large enough to have everything I need, and
small enough to be completely manageable.

Merida has an
international airport with regular direct flights to Houston, Miami,
and Atlanta. High-speed Internet, satellite and cable television,
first-run movies, and modern shopping malls exist here alongside
ancient churches, hand-pushed ice cream carts, historic haciendas, and
indigenous craft markets. Many of the people on the streets speak Mayan
as their first language.

The summers can be brutally
hot…well into the 100s for weeks at a time during July and August. But
just 40 minutes north of town on a modern highway are some of the best
beaches anywhere along Mexico’s gulf coast. Summer temperatures at the
beach average 20˚ F cooler than in the city. Restaurants there bring
cold beer and freshly grilled fish right out to your table under a
palapa in the sand. A long summer afternoon by the sea with a cool
breeze, a lunch of the day’s catch, and a few drinks runs about $15…for
two. The other nine months of the year, a ceiling fan is the only
climate control needed in the city.

Property around
Merida is still affordable compared to U.S. prices, and taking into
consideration the low taxes and other day to day costs, we can live
here for about half what we lived on in the U.S.

Mexico
has problems, and poverty is foremost among them. Mexico’s wealth,
though, is its hard working and generous people. Whenever we’re away,
we can’t wait to get back home to Mexico.

Our sources

We used the following sources to compile the data for our 2008 Quality of Life Index :
UNESCO Statistical Yearbook; Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of
Political Rights and Civil Liberties; United States Department of
Commerce; U.S. State Department; The United Nations Office for Drug
Control and Crime Prevention; The Freedom House Survey; Statistical
Abstract of the United States; The World Factbook; The World Almanac
and Book of Facts; The World Bank Atlas; Gale Country and World
Rankings Reporter; U.S. Department of State Indexes of Living Costs
Abroad, Quarters Allowances, and Hardship Differentials; The World
Health
Organization; UN Statistical Yearbook; The Economist World in Figures.
We also used popular newspapers and magazines, such as The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Time, and The
Economist.

And, of course, we consulted letters from International Living
subscribers and remembered the experiences of our contributing editors
and Local Offices around the world.

Leigh Fergus in Paris, France
I’m a city slicker and gourmet, so for me the good life must have fine
food and wine at reasonable prices, public transport that works well,
plenty of culture, and a city landscape of beauty. My corner of Paris,
in the northeastern 20th arrondissement, has all this. And more.

On
a typical day, I gaze at the Eiffel Tower from my window before going
down to buy a newspaper. Everyone in the building says hello on the
stairs—Paris is not the cold city you hear about. I read the funnies at
a local café and enjoy flaking my warm croissant into a steaming
espresso or hot chocolate. This neighborhood has one of the best boulangeries
I’ve found, baking fresh organic loaves, outstanding baguettes, and an
irresistible pear-and-chocolate dessert doused in liqueur. I don’t
resist. I do all my shopping—from specialist stores, markets or
supermarkets—within five minutes’ walk of my home.

When
I’m done writing for the morning, lunch could be half a fresh-roast
chicken ($5) to eat at home with salad, or a two-course lunch in a
workers’ café for $10. If I’m flush, I’ll go with a friend to a
restaurant where the manager serves champagne from her grandmother’s
estate.

I’m spoiled for things to do: this corner of
Paris alone has more than a dozen theaters, as well as a cinema
screening the latest movies, and plenty of bars with live music. And
I’m within striking distance of a great science museum and music
school. The landscaped greenery of the Buttes-Chaumont park is close
by, where lovers kiss, newly-weds pose for their photos, and kids can
play ball. This district also has the highest concentration of artists’
studios in Europe, and there are always open days.

When
I’m done with the bustle of the main avenues, I dodge into a side
street to indulge in people-watching from a café terrace over tea and
macaroons or a glass of Pouilly-Fumé. If I have no evening class to go
to (subjects on offer ranging from IT to yoga, and many are in
English), I can hop on a bus or Metro for more bookstores, museums, and
exhibitions or I can stroll the banks of the Seine in less than 15
minutes. The sunset on Paris’ skyline from the Pont Neuf is one of the
most beautiful sights in the world—and it’s mine whenever I want.

Jessica Ramesch in Panama City, Panama
One day in the Bahamas, I found myself thinking: “Stay here or go
home?” I’d been working for a cruise line based out of Miami. I knew
I’d move back home to Panama some day. I wanted to live a
better-quality, slower-paced life.

I’m
accustomed to First-World convenience and infrastructure. Luckily, I
moved back at a time when Panama could offer all this. I love my
neighborhood and my four-bedroom apartment which costs me $550 a month
in rent.

The light of my life, Yariela, comes over
Mondays. She does the laundry, cooks, cleans…and anything else I need.
I pay her $15 per visit…she works from around 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., leaving
everything fresh and clean.

On the weekend I often go
to Santa Clara with friends. This beach is close to the city and is
clean, and the waters are turquoise. We each spend about $95 for the
weekend, including gas, rental house with pool, and food and
drinks—local beer, rum, wine, cheese, meat, and vegetables for the BBQ,
salads, and more.

I’m living just the way I wanted—easy, happy, uncomplicated.

Our Western bias
Our sources, staff, and contributing editors are all influenced by a
Western bias. We have definite, preconceived ideas about what
constitutes a high or low standard of living, what constitutes culture
and entertainment, and what climate is the most enjoyable.
Please also remember that statistics obtained from official government
sources are not always current, accurate, or re liable. And some
statistics are highly subjective. What someone else might consider a
museum, you and I might think of as a garden shed.
Other statistics may be estimated, outdated, or incorrect for any number of reasons .
Since the statistics we gathered don’t always reflect our own
experiences, we sometimes interject a subjective factor to make the
numbers better reflect reality. This is most often necessary in the
“Leisure and Culture” category.

Lee Harrison in Punta del Este, Uruguay
Enhanced quality of life at a reasonable cost: that’s why most people
come to Punta del Este. This is not the cheapest place to retire, nor
is it the most exotic or adventurous. But this small part of an
otherwise tiny country offers the most comfortable and relaxed
lifestyle you’ll find at any price.

From
our home in a quiet, wooded residential neighborhood we enjoy a mild
climate, clean air, and endless miles of beautiful beaches that we have
mostly to ourselves. In the nearby town of Punta del Este—South
America’s premier resort—we find top-notch shows from around the world,
the country’s best selection of fine restaurants, and high-end
international outlets, and art galleries where we can enjoy hours of
window shopping.

And for all this natural beauty, we
don’t “pay the price” with hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes,
earthquakes, or tornados. Nor will you find panhandlers or people
sleeping in doorways. The well-organized municipality keeps the streets
free of litter and cleans the beaches daily.

Within a few
hours’ drive we explore regions of productive wineries, colonial
cities, and vast stretches of rolling ranchlands, accessible on fast,
well-maintained highways. Uruguay boasts pure, drinkable water
throughout the country, fast and reliable Internet service, and an
infrastructure that’s the pride of the region. Yet we still have the
benefit of reasonable utility rates and low taxes.

You
won’t find a large number of North American expats here in Punta del
Este, and there is little North American influence to interfere with
the mostly-Italian customs and traditions. Few people speak English
outside the tourist areas; something that, for us, adds to the charm of
being here.

Since moving to Punta del Este a year ago we
enjoy long walks among the dunes and on the beaches, a yard with no
fence or barbed wire, a reasonable cost of living and properties, and a
relaxed, patient, and unhurried culture where aggression and violence
are rare. Genteel conduct and courteous behavior are the norm.

True,
Punta del Este is not the most exotic or least expensive place to live
in Latin America; but all in all, it’s an excellent value for a
remarkable quality of life.